Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Mark

[Silk Fiji]

Why does Jesus curse the fig tree for following its natural lifecycle?

This makes Jesus sound insane if you take the Gospels literally.

Mark 11.12-14; 20-26.

[jimwalton]

It wasn't following its natural lifecycle. It should have had fruit on it, and it didn't. As Robertson and Vincent explain: The early figs in Palestine start in spring before the leaves and develop after the leaves. They appear in late March, do not get ripe before May or June (6 weeks more from when this happened); the later crop comes in August. It was not the season of figs. But this precocious tree in a sheltered spot had put out leaves as a sign of fruit, so there should have been figs on the tree with the crop of leaves. If only leaves appeared without the early figs, that tree would bear no figs that year. It had promise without performance, and therefore presents a vivid object lesson.

The reason he cursed it is because he was treating it as a parable of the Jewish people and leadership in their religious hypocrisy: all talk, no action; all leaf, no fruit. They had had every benefit, but they were all show and no substance. His cursing the tree was a parable of God's disdain for religiosity without relationship.

[Silk Fiji]

Mark specifically says "for it was not the season for figs."

[jimwalton]

Did you not read what I wrote? Let me roll it out again: "The early figs in Palestine start in spring before the leaves and develop after the leaves. They appear in late March, do not get ripe before May or June (6 weeks more from when this happened); the later crop comes in August. It was not the season of figs. But this precocious tree in a sheltered spot had put out leaves as a sign of fruit, so there should have been figs on the tree with the crop of leaves. If only leaves appeared without the early figs, that tree would bear no figs that year."

Did you catch that? The figs begin to form before the leaves come out. They take several months to mature, but they are on the tree, even though they are not ripe. When Jesus goes to the tree, even though it's not the season for ripe figs, he still should have seen maturing, developing fig fruit on the tree, which He did not, signaling that the tree would bear no figs that year.

That "it was not the season for figs," just as Mark has said, indicates this is the spring month of Nisan in which Passover falls.